I use TotalFinder and that solves all of my Finder issues. I used sizeup for a while but didn't feel it was worth the cash. As for the mouse stuff, I use MagicPrefs which enables the middle mouse button on a magic mouse. My problems are solved.

I also don't like the Finder, but I come to that from the perspective of a longtime Mac user rather than someone trying to bring favorite features from another platform. I've looked at all the major Finder alternatives, but their approach is always to make file management more like Windows (Norton Commander style is popular among them), not to make it more like a Mac. I can't blame them as I assume writing a classic-style file manager that needs to take over the entire screen is far more complex than one that can exist entirely within its own windows, but it would be nice to see some of the effort at reworking the OS X interface coming from more Mac-oriented people. There's Unsanity for some things, which I've used extensively over the years, but they never struck at the core of the issue (Finder).

'You can sum it up nicely with the inability to maximize a Window(that is, without manually dragging it to the corners with the mousein a one-shot attempt to cover the whole screen).'

This is completely illiterate. 'Maximising' ('zooming') is by default'the entire screen'. Watch Firefox. Firefox does this because Firefoxis illiterate.

Intelligent applications like Safari (and believe it, in this respectSafari is very intelligent) zoom only to make as much content aspossible visible. *This is not easy.*

Safari has several windows that do this - the browser window of coursebut also the activities window.

Cocoa has 'delegate calls' which can be implemented for the delegateof any window to change the default effect of a zoom. Someapplications do this (we have a few that do) and some do not.

The key is that it's controllable by the application *and has nothingto do with the system in general*. A contrary observation - such asnauseatingly repeated by Walt Mossberg and such as the above author -is merely a giveaway that the person so observing hasn't observedenough. Or perhaps in Walt's case that the poor dude isn't so terriblyclued in. ;)

Zooming to fill an entire screen with a single window smacks ofNeanderthal today what with resolutions of 2000x1000 or more. It'snonsensical. And Cocoa gives the apps the choice - unlike other more'primitive' platforms.

You know, I actually misspoke in the original post, because I said "finder" but what I really meant was the mac UI in general, not the actual file management program known as the finder.

The link I pasted is also dealing with the mac UI as a whole, and not just the finder. The issues with maximizing windows and non-overlapping and focus-follows-mouse, etc., are what were being addressed there...

That being said, thank you for the link to totalfinder - that is fantastic. I actually do the same thing with sizeup and just put two half-screen finder windows next to one another, but showing system files and so on is nice.

'You can sum it up nicely with the inability to maximize a Window(that is, without manually dragging it to the corners with the mousein a one-shot attempt to cover the whole screen).'

This is completely illiterate. 'Maximising' ('zooming') is by default'the entire screen'. Watch Firefox. Firefox does this because Firefoxis illiterate.

He has missed the point entirely. Nobody is suggesting that you maximize every window to fit your screen - in fact, you might never want to do that. The point is, you _can't_ do it. The fact that you cannot maximize a window properly, without using a mouse, is a great example of the braindead nature of the Mac UI.

Rixstep wrote:Intelligent applications like Safari (and believe it, in this respectSafari is very intelligent) zoom only to make as much content aspossible visible. *This is not easy.*

Fantastic. Really - great. The problem is that is your ONLY option. If for whatever reason you want to max a window, you can't (without a lot of inefficient, silly mouse movement that ends up being imprecise anyway).

Rixstep wrote:Zooming to fill an entire screen with a single window smacks ofNeanderthal today what with resolutions of 2000x1000 or more. It'snonsensical. And Cocoa gives the apps the choice - unlike other more'primitive' platforms.

I agree that zooming to fill a physical screen is not often useful, and that is why I love sizeup so much - because like the Ion window manager, it allows max screen, half screen, quarter screen, etc., to be accessed at a keystroke.

FWIW, full physical screen is very useful with visualization, some web pages, and very long log files or command lines, but I digress...

The real point is the lack of capability. You cannot perfectly max window in OSX, unless you fiddle with the mouse, and even then you will get an imprecise result that is not repeatable.

jsloan wrote:He has missed the point entirely. Nobody is suggesting that you maximize every window to fit your screen - in fact, you might never want to do that. The point is, you _can't_ do it. The fact that you cannot maximize a window properly, without using a mouse, is a great example of the braindead nature of the Mac UI.

...

Fantastic. Really - great. The problem is that is your ONLY option. If for whatever reason you want to max a window, you can't (without a lot of inefficient, silly mouse movement that ends up being imprecise anyway).

On every platform other than Mac OS and BeOS, maximize is your ONLY option, so what's your point? I have yet to find any GUI that offers both maximize and zoom as distinct features, so criticizing Mac OS X for only including one of them is disingenuous.

Like it or not, the concept of "maximizing" a window is completely alien to the world of the Mac OS GUI. On platforms that include it, maximize generally means more than just sizing the window; it's a special mode that windows go into (generally indicated by the loss of borders and inability to move the window). Faulting Mac OS X for not including this is like faulting Windows for lacking a global menu bar - it's just not part of the design, and it doesn't belong. Mac OS is based on its own design history that predates Windows and X11. Why should long-time Mac users accept drastic changes in the UI model to satisfy new users coming from other backgrounds?

If you switch to a Mac from another platform and want to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses relative to what you came from, that's certainly fine, but don't call its GUI "braindead" just because it is based around different concepts than what you're accustomed to. If you think the Mac GUI is braindead, why are you using it? Trying to force a tool to be something it isn't is usually an unsatisfying experience.

ianj wrote:On every platform other than Mac OS and BeOS, maximize is your ONLY option, so what's your point? I have yet to find any GUI that offers both maximize and zoom as distinct features, so criticizing Mac OS X for only including one of them is disingenuous.

You can add RISC OS to that list.

In RISC OS maximize button only changes the size of the window to a size that is needed by application.

The problem with the maximizing is it works for that specific point in time...if you change to some different content that window size does not work anymore which is the only fault I have with it. I never use it because it is more trouble than it's worth.

I find the "focus follows mouse" model to be extremely annoying. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but when I click on a text box to give input, I like to "toss" the mouse pointer out of the way so it doesn't get in the way when I'm typing. This often means "entirely away from the window I want to interact with", which on an older unix box this results in my text input going someplace unexpected or vanishing all together.

The other time this model fails completely is when you have a shaky desk or oversensitive mouse, etc. You might be typing away furiously, trying to refute someone else's post on a certain SGI forum when you find that your mouse pointer has wandered a few tenths of an inch to the right and off of the window you want to send input to. Oops! Your stream of consciousness rant about window focus models is abruptly interrupted while you move your mouse back into position and it completely derails your train of thought.

I'm sure some UI "expert" can tell me why I'm a complete idiot for my reasoning, but it seems like the logical behavior is for a window to retain focus when you click on it (i.e. select it for action), regardless of where the mouse pointer goes afterward.